Pretranslating documents

Pretranslating a document means bulk-filling its target segments according to certain rules. It is handy to use:

When your document has a lot of translation memory matches. This will rid you of clicking through and confirming each matching segment.

When your document has number-only segments. Smartcat will insert numbers and even convert their formatting according to language rules.

For machine translation post-editing. Smartcat will fill every segment with the machine translation of the source text, for a translator to edit and confirm.

In Smartcat, you can set up pretranslation either when creating a project or at any time under the Pretranslation tab. Note that the same pretranslation rules are applied to all existing and future project documents — so you don’t need to configure them for individual documents.

Pretranslation rules are applied in steps, and for each rule you define:

What to insert: translation memory matches, numbers, or machine translation, as described above.

For translation memory matches, TM name, match percentage (read more here) and minimum word count needed for a match to be inserted.

Whether to confirm the segment after insertion.

By defining different rules and applying them in different orders, you can achieve flexible pretranslation scenarios.

Example steps (scroll down for screenshot):

Insert and confirm numbers.

Insert and confirm 101% matches longer than 2 words from your primary TM and confirm them at the Editing stage.